A composite part may be bonded or cured in an oven or an autoclave where heat is applied to the part while supported on a cure tool that maintains the shape of the part during the curing process. Techniques have been developed for curing composite parts without the need for an oven or autoclave, however these techniques have been limited to curing relatively small, simple parts and/or require relatively complicated and/or expensive tooling. Out-of-autoclave processing of more complex, three-dimensional composite parts is made more challenging by the need for constant, evenly distributed heat over the entire area of the part being bonded or cured. Recently, curing of relatively small composite parts has been achieved using induction heating equipment employing susceptors that produce a maximum, constant temperature when inductively heated. For example, heating blankets using inductively heated susceptors have been used to cure relatively small areas of a composite rework patch applied to a structure such as an aircraft skin. Other attempts at using inductive heating to cure composite parts have been limited to smaller, simple geometry parts and/or involve relatively complicated tooling which may be too expensive for some applications, such as curing short-run or prototype production parts.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and device that utilizes susceptor heating blanket technology to heat a three dimensional structure so as to create a uniform temperature around a volume contained within the enclosure without using an autoclave. There is also a need for an insulated enclosure that utilizes susceptor based heating blankets for heating a complex, three dimensional structure. For example, heating blankets can be applied to a surface of a part to assist in the bonding and curing process.